Had my 3 month fitness evaluation

brigg9

I didn't think I'd have anything to share in here for a while, but I've been so happy by the results of my short 3 month journey so far that I wanted to share. It was actually 11 weeks, but pretty close. Maybe this will inspire others on our journey to not give up, and to keep going.

On January 18th I joined my local gym, which is part of our local hospital. As part of joining they give a fitness evaluation consisting of body composition, blood pressure, respiratory and flexibility. The whole evaluation takes about an hour.

I started tracking with MFP in December, and fumbled with it through the holidays. I started at 250 lbs, but didn't really stick to my guns until starting the gym.

Here are some of the highlights of what I consider the beginning of my journey:

January 18, 2016
Male, 6 foot 0 inches tall
37 years old
Starting weight: 243 lbs
Body fat: 30.6%
Daily calories: ~1800 per day (CICO/IIFYM - Approximately 30% carbs, 30% fat, 40% protein)

Following a full body lifting routine from one of the trainers 3-4 times a week, along with cardio 4-5 days a week, I made some good progress that I was happy with.

April 4, 2016 - I had this session in the evening after eating and drinking liquid all day
Current weight: 223 lbs
Body fat: 22.4%
A loss of 0.5 lb of muscle from each arm.
A loss of 1.5 lb of muscle from the entire torso - back, stomach, chest, (shoulders?), neck, etc.
A gain of 3 lbs to EACH leg (they were pretty under trained)
And apparently a loss of 24 pounds of fat tissue.
Flexibility went from 60th percentile of my age/gender to 80th percentile!
Respiratory went from 40th to high 80's!
Blood pressure went from good, to even better. I don't have the exact number with me at the moment.

I'm now sticking to about 1700-ish calories a day, and continuing CICO/IIFYM. My lifting routine changed about 4 weeks ago to incorporate more deadlifts and getting under a bar in the squat cage - both squats and deadlifts are my favorite now.

Strength has gone up crazily from when I started, it's amazing. Some of it I know comes from being more comfortable with the movements and the exertion, and some strength with newbie gains.

My first goal is 190 lbs, and I'm hoping to hit that by late summer. Ideally l would really like to hit 12% body fat before bulking, and I'm comfortable with my diet so far. I would love some honest feedback though. I'm sure the machine that was used to test my body tissue composition has room for error, and I'm aware of that.

Any feedback from regular lifters on my stats of loss/gains would be appreciated. I'm losing about an average of 8 pounds a month. I WILL be bulking eventually, but I'm trying to maintain muscle mass at the same time. I know that I will lose some being on a deficit.

If this for some reason was inspirational to new people going to a gym, or new people still considering going to a gym, I hope it helped a few people. The feeling of changing my lifestyle around has been phenomenal, and I'll never go back to my old ways again!

Still a little embarrassed by my 22% BF pictures, so I'll wait on those. I'll post a big collage of pictures from my journey at my six month mark. I have another fitness test scheduled for late June.

MyPathway

Good job!! amazing change in just a few months!

launchpadmkquak

Nice work!!!

brigg9

Thanks! I think the best part so far is having gone from a tight 38" pant to a tight 34". So for at least a couple more weeks it'll be an awkward, very loose fitting 36". I'll take it though!

Penthesilea514

Keep up the fantastic work- you are doing great! Congratulations and thanks for sharing

Tisa76

Sounds like your hard work is paying off! Even little changes every day can make a huge difference. Keep up the good work!

danelutza19

I think you have done great for yourself!!!
Ride this wave of enthusiasm for as long as you can!!!!
In my case, after about 6 months and 40lb, I hit a wall and started feeling serious fatigue. Be ready for when this time comes. It's perfectly normal, don't panic and think that you have reached the end. The way to get over it is by changing the pace of your race. Take a maintenance break for 2 weeks, keep activity light/deload and adjust your weight loss rate to 1 lb or 0.5 lb a week. After you restore your energy, test your main lifts again and decide if linear progression still works for you or if you need to change to an intermediate lifting program.
Keep this awesome attitude up and you will be in the kind of shape most people only dream about: I promise!!!

OldManOne

danelutza19 wrote: »

I think you have done great for yourself!!!
Ride this wave of enthusiasm for as long as you can!!!!
In my case, after about 6 months and 40lb, I hit a wall and started feeling serious fatigue. Be ready for when this time comes. It's perfectly normal, don't panic and think that you have reached the end. The way to get over it is by changing the pace of your race. Take a maintenance break for 2 weeks, keep activity light/deload and adjust your weight loss rate to 1 lb or 0.5 lb a week. After you restore your energy, test your main lifts again and decide if linear progression still works for you or if you need to change to an intermediate lifting program.
Keep this awesome attitude up and you will be in the kind of shape most people only dream about: I promise!!!

Very good advice - I just got over my 2 week "downer" and I'm back to it strong.

brigg9

danelutza19 wrote: »

I think you have done great for yourself!!!
Ride this wave of enthusiasm for as long as you can!!!!
In my case, after about 6 months and 40lb, I hit a wall and started feeling serious fatigue. Be ready for when this time comes. It's perfectly normal, don't panic and think that you have reached the end. The way to get over it is by changing the pace of your race. Take a maintenance break for 2 weeks, keep activity light/deload and adjust your weight loss rate to 1 lb or 0.5 lb a week. After you restore your energy, test your main lifts again and decide if linear progression still works for you or if you need to change to an intermediate lifting program.
Keep this awesome attitude up and you will be in the kind of shape most people only dream about: I promise!!!

Awesome advice, thank you very much! I'll definitely keep it mind if/when I hit that dreaded wall.